After Having Thought About It For A Long Time

In the warm springs where they
bathe and float together
her hand accidentally touches
his hand underwater.
His head jerks up in uncertainty

while her face remains nonchalant.
She draws back in a flutter
of sand, though on second thought
what she wants
is to take his hand

in hers, open
his palm to her mouth,
kiss the upturned flesh,
press palms together —
map to inner map, interlocutors

to separate pasts
locked in deaf-mute
languages of distress, frightened
by the sudden explicit gesture,
yet sprung open, exposed,

and imprinted with desire
to touch the beautiful strange forms
that grow from their upturned bodies,
innocent and supple as algae sprung from
alchemy of water, light, stone.